Well, after all that exciting stuff, we're into the hum drum tedium of finishing up tracking this week. Marc's been spending hours and hours sitting in front of his Pro Tools rig, "tweaking" - making sure there's no extraneous noises, double checking that we're using the takes we wanted to use. I've been hovering, asking to hear other takes for a closer listen to the bass parts, the dobros and pedal steel.
Meanwhile Philip and Marc set up a "guitar station" over the weekend; because we're not in an expensive, fancy studio for the overdubs, we're in the home studio - low ceiling, cement walls. They've taken one of the studio rooms (it's all pretty open) and covered it with cloth and foam. Another wall has guitar cases stackeed to the ceiling. Another has a desk. And in the middle of it all, three guitar microphones, a chair, a stool with my picks, capos etc, and my rig.
The final stage in building it came Monday, when Philip came over in the morning and we packed all (I do mean ALL) of the instruments I own into our cars and drove them to the studio. They're now lined up in a half circle around the guitar microphones and chair, giving the room a nice "woody" tone.
I must say, I'm kind of stunned at the amount and variety of guitars I've managed to collect over the years. (Remembering that I bought them when they were still reasonably priced....) There's a Bozo that used to belong to Fred Hellerman, that's turned into the favorite guitar for this album. My Kevin Ryan, bought for me as a Christmas surprise by good friend Mary Fisher. The 1938 Martin D-18 that came home after 26 years (see my article "Of Guitars & Righteous Men"). A 1958 00-18 I picked up in Maine for $350 from a music store owner who said "No one around here will ever buy it, I'll give it to you cheap". My D'Aquisto, made by Jimmy for me around 1980, one of the rare hollow-body flattops he ever made -- solid maple. A Deering practice banjo, a mandolin Misty Lackey mailed me after she'd visited, my Santa Cruz stage guitars, a baby Martin from 1898 that a fan loaned me and later let me keep.
It's pretty amazing, isn't it, what you can accumulate in a lifetime?
Anyway, today we finished up guitars on 5 songs; we've got another 4 to go. (With several tracks, we've decided to keep the session guitar I played - might be rough in a few spots, but a lot of heart.) Tomorrow we'll be doing a vocal for a Japanese tribute project, then plowing on with the guitars.
We're going to have to tackle the nylon guitar on Mary's Eyes on Sunday, when there aren't any trucks going by...